Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman to Attend Torching of Largest Ever Ivory Stockpile to Help Put an End to Poaching

Kenya will host a major global summit on illegal poaching and wildlife trafficking this April that will count Hollywood celebrities, business leaders, world dignitaries and politicians as attendees, according to local reports.

Additionally, in an effort to boost elephant conservation, Kenya will also use the two-day event to set fire to its massive stockpile of ivory that has an estimated black market price of $270 million.

Kenya will destroy as much as 120 tonnes of stockpiled ivory in April. Actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman, along with David Attenborough, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Yao Ming, Elton John, Paul Allen and Howard Buffet, are said to be attending the star-studded event. Photo credit:

“Kenya plans to use the occasion to torch as many as 120 tonnes of ivory, the largest stockpile of ivory ever destroyed by any country, as proof of our commitment to zero tolerance for poaching and illegal ivory trade,” Presidential Spokesman Manoah Esipisu told reporters.

Actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman, and business tycoons George Soros, Paul Allen, Howard Buffet (son of Warren Buffett) and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg are expected to attend the Elephant Protection Initiative held April 29 - April 30.

Renowned broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough, musician Elton John and former NBA player Yao Ming, who has also prominently campaigned against poaching crisis, are also on the guest list.

“They will be joined by a host of African gliterrati in a campaign to sustain the fight against poaching and the illegal trade in ivory, for which Kenya is already a recognized leader,” the Environment Cabinet Sec. Judi Wakhungu told The Star.

Conservationist Richard Leakey, chairman of the government’s Kenya Wildlife Service, told News.com.au that the average weight of an elephant’s pair of tusks was around 36 kilos (nearly 80 pounds), meaning the stockpile represents the death of around 4,000 animals.

According to News.com.au, "Kenya’s stockpile, if illegally sold on the black market at current prices, could be worth some $270 million, but conservationists say sale of ivory only serves to fuel further poaching."

Kenya's current elephant population stands at about 45,000 nationwide, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service. The country had a population of roughly 35,000 elephants in 2013. (Let us also note that Kenya's elephant population was about 167,000 in the 1970s.)

Still, the illegal slaughter of elephants and other wildlife remains a rampant problem in Kenya and across the African continent. The latest statistics, according to a report from Daily Nation, show that more than 100,000 elephants have been killed in Africa in the past three years. Kenya lost 96 elephants and 11 rhinos to poachers in 2015, the report said.

Kenya's strict laws against poaching has led to a dramatic decline in elephant and rhino poaching within the country. This past March, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to 15 tonnes of elephant ivory tusks during a ceremony at the Nairobi National Park, which was then the largest consignment ever destroyed by Kenya, the BBC reported.

"Many of these tusks belonged to elephants which were wantonly slaughtered by criminals," he said at the ceremony.

"We want future generations of Kenyans, Africans and indeed the entire world to experience the majesty and beauty of these magnificent animals," President Kenyatta said.

Elephant tusks are used for ornaments in Asia and the Middle East. China, in particular, is a leading culprit. The country's demand accounts for 70 percent of global demand for ivory, contributing the to death of 30,000 African elephants each year, The Guardian reported.

Hong Kong's announcement followed an announcement by Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama in September 2015 that they would take significant and timely steps to halt their domestic commercial ivory trades.

On Tuesday, U.S Sec. of the Interior Sally Jewell and President Kenyatta signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on National Conservation and Management at the State House in Nairobi to jointly tackle trafficking and aid wildlife conservation.

“The U.S. has brought on board China, which is a main consumer of the animal products," Jewell said. "I have met several senior Chinese officials to discuss ways of ending this illegal business. The U.S. is determined to end this illegal trade."

In related news, earlier this week, Sri Lanka became the fifteenth country to crush and burn its ivory stockpile and the first to formally apologize for its role in the illegal ivory trade.

The country joins Gabon, the Philippines, the U.S., China, France, Chad, Belgium, Hong Kong, Kenya, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Thailand, who have all destroyed stockpiles of ivory in the last four years.

As the world's population grows and the planet warms, demand for water will rise but the quality and reliability of the supply is expected to deteriorate, the United Nations said Monday in this year's World Water Development Report.

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Twenty-eight demonstrators were arrested March 17 after blocking the front gate to Kinder Morgan's tank farm in Burnaby, BC for four hours, according to a press release put out by Protect the Inlet, the group leading the protest.

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A Hollywood scriptwriter couldn't make this up. One day after new data revealed widespread toxic water contamination near coal ash disposal sites, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt announced a proposal to repeal the very 2015 EPA safeguards that had required this data to be tracked and released in the first place. Clean water is a basic human right that should never be treated as collateral damage on a corporate balance sheet, but that is exactly what is happening.